Thursday, January 15, 2015

"He can't tell time"

Nixon and I had a regular morning. I almost overslept because, while I changed my alarm from the day before, I forgot to actually turn the alarm on. Thankfully, Nixon was already in med with me and kept reading the numbers off the clock to me.

We got to school, on time, and I walked him to the door. We had our little talk (it is along the lines of: No spitting/hitting/kicking/bad language/running away or taking your clothes off. Be kind, use kind words, listen to your teachers, ask for a break if you feel overwhelmed, transition without fights), I got a hug and kiss before he ran over to see the teacher's aide. I left, hoping for the best.

I picked Nixon up from school. He was all smiles and the aide was too. He had 7 smiles for the day, 15 minutes out of class and lost 10 minutes of recess (to do work he'd missed earlier). The teacher's aide told him he was losing 16 minutes of recess, but only set the timer for 10 minutes. Reasoning being, Nixon can't tell time but had acted badly enough that a time longer than 10 minutes of recess lost had a larger impact on his behavior.
*Now, I should say this: Nixon is unaffected by losing recess to do work. He likes working in the classroom when everyone else is outside, as long as he gets some outside time. I've brought this up to his teacher, just letting her know this isn't an effective deterrent. The time from recess isn't a punishment, but it does help Nixon complete all his school work that day.*

Overall, today was a vast improvement from yesterday. Here's hoping tomorrow is great too. He's got Monday off and 4-early dismissal days next week.